About

The Huntsville Ballet Company and Huntsville Ballet School are under the umbrella of Community Ballet Association, Inc., a non-profit member of the state and local Arts Councils. The Company holds a long and rich history in the art of dance offering classical and contemporary repertoire to the state of Alabama. Huntsville Ballet Company continues to bring to the Huntsville community the highest quality of dance, performing ballets such as The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, The Firebird, and Swan Lake among others. Each year The Nutcracker affords students from Huntsville Ballet School the opportunity to audition and perform with the Company at the Von Braun Center Concert Hall with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra. In addition, the Huntsville Ballet Company strives to create new works each season commissioned from resident and guest choreographers.

The Huntsville Ballet Company, with the assistance of the Alabama State Council of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, bring to northern Alabama prestigious dance companies including Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and the New York City Ballet.

The Mission
Huntsville Ballet Company’s mission is to use the power of dance to inspire and nurture the art of classical ballet through educational excellence, artistic achievement, performance experiences, and education and outreach activities in the community and beyond.

The Vision
To become the finest ballet company in the State of Alabama, offering the highest quality of performance opportunities and instruction to students in the school, performing a range of choreography including classical, neoclassical and contemporary art forms.

Phillip Otto

Mr. Otto has most recently served as New Haven Ballet’s artistic director. Born in New York, Mr. Otto has trained at the School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theatre School, and the Joffrey School, among others. As a child Mr. Otto was a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s children’s chorus and danced with New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, London’s Royal Ballet, the Stuttgart Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet. As an adult Mr. Otto danced principal and soloists roles with Milwaukee Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet. After retiring as a featured soloist from Pacific Northwest Ballet in 1996, Mr. Otto was the first company member ever to be asked to join the faculty of Pacific Northwest Ballet School and went on to direct Pacific Northwest Ballet’s student company as well as the companies outreach and educational programs for which he was nominated for the State of Washington’s Golden Apple award for excellence in education. Mr. Otto has worked and trained with such distinguished artists as George Balanchine, Peter Martins, Jerome Robins, Kent Stowell, Francia Russell, Bojan Spasoff, Robert Weiss and Lynn Taylor- Corbett, Violette Verdi, Richard Thomas, Alexandra Danilova, Lar Lubavitch, Andre Eglevsky and Ted Kivitt, among others. Mr. Otto’s dancing credits include principle roles in (George Balanchine’s)“Who Care’s”, The Four Temperaments, Western Symphony, Concerto Borocco, La Valse, Symphony in C, Nutcracker, Prodical Son, Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, (Cranko’s) Romeo and Juliet, (Limons) Moor’s Pavane, (Forsythe’s) Love Songs, (Lynn Taylor- Corbett’s) Brahms Sonata’s, Code Of Silence, The Quilt, Tunes Great Galloping Gottschalk and Final Draft among others. In addition, Mr. Otto serves as permanent guest faculty for the Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia and has taught master classes for Vassar College, Yale University, the Kennedy Center and the Edinburgh Festival among other schools and companies throughout the United States and Scotland

Rachel Butler

Ms. Butler has most recently served as Ballet Mistress for New Haven Ballet. Ms. Butler trained with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet and the Atlantic Contemporary Ballet Academy. As a professional Dancer Ms. Butler danced Soloist and Principle roles with Pacific Northwest Ballet, the Pennsylvania Ballet and has been sought after as a guest artist throughout the United States. Ms. Butler has trained and worked with Bruce Wells, Violette Verdy, Richard Tanner, Robert Weiss, Kent Stowell, Francia Russell, Patricia Neary, Bart Cook, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, Suzanne Farrell, Bojan Spasoff and Stephanie Wolf, among others.

As A ballet mistress Ms. Butler has set Ballet’s for New Haven Ballet, and served as assistant ballet mistress of children’s roles for Kent Stowell’s and Maurice Sendacks world renowned production of The Nutcracker. Ms. Butlers dancing credits include (George Balanchine’s) Four Temperaments, Ballet Imperial, Divertimento #15, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Symphony in C, Who Cares, Stars and Stripes, and Western Symphony. (Kent Stowell’s) Firebird, Nutcracker, Swan Lake. (Jerome Robins) Fanfare and ballet’s choreographed by William Forsythe, Peter Martins and Paul Taylor among others. Ms. Butler’s teaching credits include Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Rock School for Dance Education, Mid-Atlantic Ballet and Albany Dance Institute. Ms. Butler has also traveled the world dancing and teaching in China, Turkey, Australia, London and Scotland and has performed for The Kennedy Center and New York’s City Center.